I don't know how many of you remember my betta abuse in the animal management classroom thread, but guess who I brought home? I don't know what changed her mind (maybe it was my blank staring at the wall every day in her class) but my teacher approached me today and asked if I would bring Professor Lupin (the betta) home for Christmas vacation. So, I said yes. Then, she told me that if I wanted to buy him a more suitable home I could just bring in the reciept and she would pay me back after vacation :shock:. So, I'm trying to bring him back to health over vacation and then when he goes back he will be cared for correctly finally :-D. The poor little guy looks pretty beat up now, but he has shown some promising signs. After I acclimated him to my water (I took a whole 2 hours to do this because of his condition) he started exploring his new home which is my 10 gallon QT tank. He even blew 1 bubble, and when I checked on him a little while ago he was sleeping with all his fins fanned out :-D.

It's actually kind of creepy how well everything worked out. I had just spent a few hours the day before cleaning out the guppy tank (they finally got better and moved to the 15 gal) and sterilizing it, then resetting it up. I had even put the airstone in so that the water was aged for 24 hrs before I brought him home. And, I had been resetting the heater the day before, but I wasn't concentrating on it too much because I didn't think I'd be putting fish in there until after Christmas anyway, and I didn't even check it in the morning. When I got home, the tank was 78 degrees and the heater has kept it that way since!!! Talk about coincidence. Oh, and my canister filter needed a cleaning, so I just took out one of the filter pads and stuck it in the 10 gallon. Instant cycle! All this happened before I even knew I'd be bringing him home :shock:.

So, without further ado here he is. The pics actually make him look way better than he is, he is actually very dull and greyish in color. Stupid flash! He has colored up a bit more since I moved him to the heated 10 gallon.

The first 2 are in his little bowl with the horrid plastic plants that ripped his fins to threads origionally (I actually saw blue pieces of tail on them when she first put him in there) and the last one is him in my 10 gal. QT tank. I didn't have many silk plants so it's pretty bare, but still WAY better than where he was. I also turned the filter flow as far down as it would go and put a double layer of nylon around the intake tube. Now it is perfect! :-D:-D

dramaqueen

12-23-2008 07:48 PM

Good for you, rescuing Professor Lupin! :) I think it was meant to be because everything just seemed to fall into place for you. I know he'll have a wonderful home, with such a caring person to take care of him.

Twistersmom

12-23-2008 09:47 PM

Nice fish story! Sounds like Professor Lupin is going to have a very nice Christmas!!!

iamntbatman

12-23-2008 11:24 PM

Great news! That whole thread you had going before was so frustrating. I'm glad your teacher finally turned around. If his home looks anything like your own personal tanks, I'm sure your teacher and the rest of the class will be amazed at how beautiful and healthy a properly cared for fish can be.

aunt kymmie

12-24-2008 12:06 AM

Good story w/ a nice happy ending. Great job, Kim!

Kim

12-24-2008 08:06 AM

Thanks everyone!

I have an update: I checked on him this morning to see that he blew about 5 bubbles during the night, and has regained a lot of color. His ventrals are now a nice red, and he is getting a red wash on his fins. The edges of his fins also look less brown than they did yesterday. It's just amazing how quickly they can bounce back! He also got his first meal, some bettamin flakes. At the school they kept trying to feed him these huge pellets that he probably couldn't eat even if he wanted to. Then, they would just leave them in there to rot. So, basically he survived on freeze-dried bloodworms. He absolutely gobbled up the flakes though. He also seems to be playing near the out flow of my filter, and he likes to watch the fish in my 15 gallon next door :) He is a fighter to be doing so well!

Tyyrlym

12-24-2008 08:15 AM

It's kind of amazing how quickly fish can bounce back. Shark was much the same. When I found him at Petsmart in his death cup he was listless, faded, and looking rough, and he was one of the nicer looking ones. Within half an hour of being in his new home he colored up (becoming a much deeper vibrant blue, I swore he was purple) and swimming everywhere to check things out.

If the teacher is willing to foot the bill for a new home I'd say don't push things. A simple 2.5 or 5 gallon tank, small internal filter, auto heater*, and some silk plants. Don't go too nuts, your teacher will probably get sticker shock even from you holding back.

*One of the ones without a control knob and stays at 78 automatically. Probably best to not give them the power to adjust the temp to make him more "comfortable".

dramaqueen

12-24-2008 11:02 AM

Glad to hear he's doing so well. He probably thinks he died and went to heaven.

aunt kymmie

12-24-2008 11:16 AM

It sounds like he did have a near death experience and he IS now in heaven. I'm glad he's doing so well. Such a great thing you did. Persistence pays dividends!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so there it is :-D. Compare that picture to the last one in my first post (the one that most accurately showed his colors). WOW! He is so active now! When I woke up this morning he was repeatedly swimming through the outflow of the filter, turning around, and doing it again :lol:. When I gave him his morning flakes he practically attacked them!! And, if you look VERY closely you can already see a teeny tiny bit of clear regrowth on his fins! I'm going to be writing my teacher a really sappy e-mail today in hopes that she will give him to me for Christmas. I mean, it would be good for her because she wouldn't have to pay for a tank anyway. But, I'm not getting my hopes up because at least I know that he will have a proper setup if he has to go back. And now that I have my new QT tank (thank's mom!) I can rescue 2 more to put into my divided 10 gal.

As far as maintenance is concerned, I have been using a turkey baster to clean up poop and uneaten food daily, as well as testing the water to make sure my filter sponge did the trick cycle wise. So far so good :-D.

It still makes me mad though. I mean, all he needed to be healthy was a clean, cycled, larger tank, a heater, and food that he can actually eat! :evil: The reason he was so bad off was neglect, period!